What I Wear as a High School SLP Pt. 3

New Shein haul coming soon! *cue happy dance*

I have good news: I recently learned that the groundhog is only correct 39% of the time. You know what that means! There's a high probability that he was wrong for 2023, which means we aren't in for a long winter after all. Bless. This week came through with beautiful weather: sunny and high 60s! And, as you know, it's the week before Valentine's Day, so I'm breaking out the pink every day leading up to it. I was also able to lean into my true White Girl aesthetic with some office updates: in addition to my new pink velvet chairs with gold accents, I gave my rickety, dingy school-provided table a facelift using faux marble peel-and-stick wallpaper. Needless to say, I'm obsessed!

Update: my boss texted me Friday and said Accounting won't reimburse me for my chairs since 'pink is a special color'... so, I will likely return the pink velvet chairs for a 'less special' color. Sad.

Monday

We are about 1 full month back into school since Winter Break, which means it's the first round of illnesses for 2023. I had a lot of students out sick or starting to catch the newest, trending viruses of the week. Here's hoping I can make it out of Winter unscathed... only time will tell. This day was fairly laid back because I had someone out sick and a no-show virtual student, who I have yet to meet. I am very interested to meet this student since he recently got out of juvie... I ended the day with a fun activity for my literacy intervention class; well, at least the teacher, teaching aide, and I had fun! (These high schoolers like to roll their eyes at everything and then secretly get really into the activity.) We made alphabet alliteration sentences, so the core words of the sentence had to start with the same sound. Jumping jackalopes journey just for jams and jellies.

Top: Shein pink waffle t-shirt

Bottoms: American Eagle skinny jeans

Shoes: Nike Kids' Court Borough Low 2

Tuesday

Happy Target Tuesday! I started my day off with an impromptu observation of one of my students. It didn't quite go as I had planned since there was a sub, but as an SLP, we learn to roll with the unexpected and make it work. Then, I headed to Target with the SDC-I class. I worked with 2 students from different schools who didn't know each other very well -- it was great to see them interact and become fast friends! I had another student absent after that, so I was able to prep for the remainder of my sessions in the week. After lunch, I worked with a senior who wants to go to trade school for construction. Since I only see him twice a month, I really try to make the most of our time so that he feels ready for life after high school. My next session was... unexpected to say the least. The student I observed earlier in the day came to my office with a scowl and crumpled up and tossed the admin slip on my desk. I guess you could say he was not happy... We worked through it though by using emotional regulation techniques and perspective-taking strategies. I finished off this glorious Tuesday with an afterschool session with my student who stutters. I'm so proud of how far he's come! We agreed to start reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad in our sessions, which I'm very excited about.

Top: Shein pink tank mockneck

Bottoms: American Eagle black jeans

Shoes: Amazon black booties

Wednesday

This outfit makes me so happy! I had my social communication classes and continued our emotional awareness and regulation lesson, focusing on anger and coping skills. It must've been interesting since a student who usually sits with his hood on and never looks at me was actually engaged and *gasp* even smiled! Definitely a win. I got to cook with the SDC-I class, and they made taco bowls. Shortly after, we did our speech activity: we listened to a super cute read-aloud about Valentine's Day and being kind, and they answered some WH- questions and did some perspective-taking. This book was very appropriate since apparently there is some interclass bullying going on, which is definitely a no-no. I ended the day by packing my bag for the other high school and making sure I was caught up on billing.

Top: Shein black bodysuit

Bottoms: Shein pink linen pants

Shoes: Amazon black strappy heels

Thursday

Over at the other high school, I started my morning with a meeting regarding a student who was suspended for punching another student. His mom thought it best to put him on independent study instead of coming back to school... definitely not the route I would have suggested for this student. Independent study is basically 1 day of "structured" classes to teach the material and give classwork and homework to be completed during the other 4 days at your own pace. And, usually, the students who do independent study are the ones who need extra support from teachers and staff and social interaction with peers. Other than that, I had a super light day since there was a schedule change for the SDC-I class, and they cooked Wednesday instead of Thursday. After lunch, I worked with one of my favorite students who has Juvenile Huntington's Disease. Huntington's is a rare, inherited neurodegenerative disease that typically presents around 30-40 years of age. She started showing symptoms at age 15, which means she has juvenile HD. Research shows that juvenile HD is typically more aggressive and progresses rapidly with a life expectancy of 10 years after symptoms develop. Knowing that, I truly appreciate every minute I get to spend with her. We work through her oral-motor exercises and end our session with blow art or painting her nails -- fun ways to include her breathing exercises in therapy!

Top: Amazon SLP shirt

Bottoms: American Eagle black skinny jeans

Shoes: Steve Madden green quilted slip-ons

Friday

First Friday at the new school! It was chilly and supposed to rain, so I wore my heeled rain boots, of course. This day was fairly uneventful: I worked with 6 students, 2 of which are still working on their /r/. One student knows he has some trouble with -or words and wants to fix it. He picks up a list from me and practices at home. I encouraged him to record himself so he could hear how to fix it. He has all the tools and is capable of remediating it himself since he has intrinsic motivation. The other student... Lord, help him... He says he wants to fix his speech, but he is so unaware of how he actually sounds that he can't self-monitor or self-correct. I recorded him and had him read sentences aloud, we listened to them, and he rated himself. He couldn't determine what sounded "off" about his speech but just didn't like it. He's tough because he can say all his sounds and sometimes does in spontaneous speech, but when he doesn't, he has no idea. For lunch, I carried on my supervisor's tradition of Board Game Club for any SDC and SDC-I students who wanted to join. When I finished billing, I headed to the bowling alley with my boyfriend, Wesley, for pre-bowling so we didn't have to spend Valentine's Day with our bowling league. Pre-bowling is when you bowl early and use your scores as your official league scores for the week. And, let me tell you, we absolutely killed it. It might become a new Friday tradition.

Top: Shein pink sweater

Bottoms: American Eagle skinny jeans

Shoes: Dolce Vita Caster H2O booties